Granny Dances to a Holiday Drum

For 31 years, the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble has been blending dance, live music, spoken word, and seasonal celebrations and customs from around the world into a memorable holiday tradition like none other.

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The story: Granny’s memories are her gifts to those she loves, but she has forgotten many of her stories and the magical dances she’s seen and performed in her lifetime. In her youth, she danced in winter festivals honoring the birth of Christ, the African Harvest, the Native American Winter Solstice, the Celtic Yule Time, and Las Posadas in Mexico, Kwanzaa in the United States, the ancient Hebrew Festival of Lights, the Chinese New Year, and the Caribbean’s Junkanoo Day. Now Granny seeks to relive these memories of rich cultural traditions, bringing them alive again for her grandchildren TiSean and Nakia through dance, live music, and storytelling.

Granny Dances to a Holiday Drum is a multicultural celebration that touches the hearts of people of all backgrounds, kindling the wonderment and magic shared across the winter holiday season. Each year, Granny highlights new stories from her rich life dancing around the world, making way for new twists and scenes for an artistically fresh production every time. No wonder it’s one of the city’s most beloved family traditions inspiring audiences both young and old through the universal language of dance!

The production features, Cleo Parker Robinson as Shakti, Chloe-Grant Abel as Cantadora, Cedric Dewayne Hall as Griot and Margarita Taylor as Granny.